Latest happenings, works in progress and creative practice in the making by Julieanna Preston.

It was a talk at the end of a long day chocker full of presentations by CoCA researchers, including my own on IN COLD HEAT. The audience at Performance Lab was small but very attentive and they asked some very good questions that turned my rubbery brain waves into sharper more contemplative thoughts. When I found my self almost embarrassed and apologetic for admitting that I do not really perform for an audience other than the material at hand, one person reminded me of how that offers an intensity and uniqueness to the work that is alluring-- did she use the word enticing or is that my own embellishment? Another person astutely asked about the timing of the sessions and I confessed they posed no other meaning than catering to the predictable flow of people and the need to be in the water for no longer than an hour each session. But then I have since reconsidered that response and accounted for the number of contingencies the work is navigating such as weather, tides, public interaction, jellyfish, sting rays and pigeons and let's not forget the art of floating, treading and bobbling! So I may be justified in being less self critical about the work before it has even happened to recognise how much it embraces contingency as a scored not scripted durational live act.